Parala Capital’s macroeconomic recipe

Parala Capital has positioned itself as the first macro strategy boutique to sell trading strategies to investment banks and exchange-traded fund and index providers. Magda Ali hears how the ability to exploit forward-looking rankings and rules-based trading models leaves room for alpha generation

London-based macro strategy boutique Parala Capital consists of three economics professors, two senior investment professionals and one former index guru who set up the company in 2007 when market mayhem had left investors feeling deflated and product providers had taken a hit. Parala saw a gap in the market for strategies that take account of macroeconomic factors and are based on proprietary research. It started its research programme in 2008, focusing on capturing the time varying skills of